The aim of this experiment is to investigate what effect the surface area of a parachute has on the terminal velocity of the parachute.

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Science KS 4 Practical Assessment Parachutes

Aim: The aim of this experiment is to investigate what effect the surface area of a parachute has on the terminal velocity of the parachute.

Theory: When a parachutist first jumps of a plane, he has very little air resistance and minimal velocity. So as he gains speed and this increases his air resistance, this in turn reduces his acceleration. Until the air resistance is balanced by the speed. But as the parachutist is falling very fast he opens his parachute, so his surface area increases a lot and because of the parachute air resistance of the parachutist is increases and this means that the velocity has to balance the air resistance and therefore decreases.

The more the weight of the parachute is the faster the velocity should need to be in order to balance out the Air Resistance and therefore reach Terminal Velocity.

Height

The height at which the parachute is dropped from.

The higher the parachute is dropped from the longer it should take for the parachute to reach the ground. As the parachute has a longer distance to fall.

Prediction: The variable that I will be changing is the Surface Area. I predict that when the surface area is reduced the speed will increase. I expect to get this result because there will be less air resistance air that can be trapped. So the velocity will need to be higher to balance the Air Resistance.

Found what you're looking for?

Start learning 29% faster today

150,000+ documents available

Just £6.99 a month

or

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

3 star(s)

This is a good start to a report on an investigation.
1. The report is well structured and the information under the correct subheadings.
2. The aim, theory and variables sections are well written.
3. The fair test section contains a good amount of detail.
4. The hypothesis needs to be rewritten as the reasoning behind the science is not correct.
5. The method needs to be finished.
*** (3 stars)

Related GCSE Forces and Motion essays

it is expected that the artery will return to its original length (or at least very close) after an applied force has been removed. The vein however, will not return to its original length as well as the artery, and will be permanently stretched.

Prediction I think that the more mass that you add on to cupcake cases the faster that the cupcake case will accelerate. I believe if we were to drop the cupcake cases from about two meters higher and use the same method the cupcake case would reach terminal velocity.

at which point the sum of the added weights shall be recorded (force needed to overcome the static friction). This will be repeated 2 times. Then, the surface the block of wood is being pulled over will be changed, and the mass of the block of wood will be altered by using weights.

9.81m/s The new graph is as I predicted and shows my data follows the same basic curve as the theoretical results. However all of my data is slower accelerating than the theoretical set. This is because the theoretical set ignores friction.

It can therefore be concluded that the gradient of a graph is equal to the coefficient of static/ dynamic friction of the particular surface it is representing. This can be seen in the following: COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION = FRICTION (N)

Therefore, I belive that angle of release does not contribute to the time of oscillation, but air resistance does. So, if this experiment could be retested in a vacuum, we would see that the times would be tighter and more accurate.

These observations discussed earlier in the experiment are summarized in Newton?s second law which states that, the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on it and inversely proportional to its mass (Hewitt, 2010). Newton?s second law of motion is considered as the most important